How do you follow up capturing the hearts of the nation with a new Wallace & Gromit film?
For Ben Whitehead, who took over the role of Wallace from late legend Peter Sallis, he’s gone in an entirely different direction – playing Elon Musk on stage.
The actor can currently be seen in David Morley’s Elon Musk: Lost In Space, which runs until Saturday during the Edinburgh Fringe at the Grand Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall.
Speaking exclusively to Metro, Ben pointed out while there are some similarities between Wallace and Elon, the beloved inventor has the upper hand.
‘He’s got much more experience of going to space than Elon Musk, he made it to another planet,’ he quipped. ‘Come on! He’s doing much better.’
As well as flying to the Moon in A Grand Day Out, Wallace and Gromit also landed on Mars in 2023 VR game The Grand Getaway – so how can Elon catch up?
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‘[Elon] has a dog, but I think he needs a Gromit,’ he pondered. ‘There’s only one, and Wallace isn’t gonna let it go!’
The similarities largely end at space travel ambitions (Wallace was more focused on literal cheese than money), and Ben admitted he had some reservations about playing the billionaire.
‘Musk wasn’t even on my radar until about a year ago when he started interfering in European politics,’ he pointed out. ‘I [didn’t] know if I can do it. And I think when you when you sort of say that to yourself, you’ve got to find out!’
The 70-minute show – which also stars Sarah Lawrie as Elon’s spaceship AI, M-UTHA – is described as a ‘darkly comic sci-fi satire’ as the richest man in the world hops aboard one of his own ships.
He gets a call from President Donald Trump (also voiced by Ben) which ‘sends his mission, as well as his mind, spiralling off-course’.
The Wallace & Gromit star admitted he had to create an alternate version of the characters in the show rather than just doing a spot-on impression.
‘You can’t do that for an hour on stage. The audience will be asleep,’ he explained. ‘It’s a playful version of Elon Musk, who’s imagining himself as Captain Kirk, Buzz Lightyear, out in space.’
He also had to find the right way to tackle such a divisive and controversial figure.
”There’s never been anyone like him, as far as billionaires are concerned, so much in the public eye. But he also does things that, you know, you think, well, that’s quite that’s altruistic,’ he argued.
‘You really wanted to build a car that doesn’t run on fossil fuels, because we’re gonna have to have vehicles that can’t run petrol? There’s something commendable about that.’
When it comes to the controversy around the SpaceX founder – environmentalist groups have been putting stickers on the show’s posters at the Fringe – the actor doesn’t dwell on it.
‘It’s a comedy. How are we going to make this funny? That’s the priority,’ he explained.
‘[But] there’s definitely controversy with a character like this, who courts it so much and makes these bizarre statements and claims, and is unbelievably wealthy. Do we need billionaires in the world? There’s a lot of questions to be answered, at least to us.’
Ben’s thrived in a role allowing him to ‘chew the scenery’ and deliver an ‘over the top’, physical performance, having spent a lot of time on his own in a recording booth for 2024’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
There was also scope for improv in rehearsals for the play, although he was ‘positively encouraged’ to ad lib during Wallace & Gromit recordings.
‘I’m fairly sure none of the ad lib, improvised stuff actually ended up in the film, which is just testament to the great script,’ he admitted. ‘I’m careful what I say in the booth as well. I’ll just always go off on one and see where it heads. But we don’t make that public!’
There’s an elephant in the room, after the huge success of Vengeance Most Fowl and an enduring appetite for all things Wallace and Gromit.
‘Have you heard anything? No one’s told me anything,’ Ben joked about the future of the franchise, while suggesting there’s nothing on the immediate horizon.
‘It would be fantastic to work on another Wallace and Gromit,’ he said. ‘The film was so good, so it would be brilliant, but you can’t rush these guys to make a film. We’ll see what happens.’
As the dust settles, Ben has continued to work in theatre and while he’s no stranger at the Fringe, Lost In Space marks his first official job at the festival.
‘[After Vengeance Most Fowl], I suppose you think, “Well, maybe someone else will give me a job now doing something. This is my first job at the Edinburgh Fringe. So it has happened,’ he chucked.
However, he argued that any level of success doesn’t guarantee regular work, especially in the arts – and Ben’s open to whatever opportunities come his way.
‘I don’t just expect to get work. Doesn’t matter who you are, you know, what you’ve done, you’ve still got to keep plugging away,’ he said. ‘I’d love to maybe come back [to the Fringe] next year, with, with my own show, and see how that goes down.’
Elon Musk: Lost In Space is on at Grand Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall at 15:05pm all this week. Head here for tickets.
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